NeSmith: Many thanks for a guiding hand

Friday

Nov 29, 2013 at 9:52 PM

If we were lucky to have extra quarters, my buddies and I liked to buy a ticket for the weekly shoot-'em-up at the Strand Theater. The Blue Coats and the Apaches waged war most Saturdays. And almost always - just before scalps were surrendered - a cloud of dust boiled up on a nearby hilltop. With a bugle blaring and a flag flapping, the mounted cavalry charged to save the outnumbered troops.

In the first days of 1977, I was surrounded. My scalp wasn't in jeopardy, but my career and sanity were. As the 28-year-old publisher of a newly combined twice-a-week newspaper, I was eager, but unprepared. The week before, 54 people were in hand-to-hand combat over news, advertising and market dominance. Seven days later, those fierce competitors were under the same roof. Tension was high, and I was struggling.

I needed to hear thundering hooves and a bugle's blast, but I didn't. Instead, my reinforcement rode over the Altamaha River in a gray Buick LeSabre. Trailing behind was a blue cloud of cigarette smoke. My cavalry was a man in a dark suit, a starched white shirt and a tie. He stuck out his hand and said in a rich, two-packs-a-day-of-Kent-enriched baritone voice, "I'm Eddie Sweatt, and I'm here to help you." Neither of us knew how much of an understatement that was.

That's why on Nov. 1, I flew to Wilmington, N.C., on my way to Holden Beach, down the edge of the Atlantic Ocean. It was Eddie's 80th birthday, and I needed him to know how valuable he's been to me. My mentor and his wife, Carolyn, were waiting at the Delta gate. Walking arm in arm to their car, we stepped back 36 years.

On the 30-mile drive to their beachside home, our banter was punctuated with laughter. Eddie tossed the Kents in 1988, but his chuckle remains deep. And Carolyn's cackle still has the markings of a South Carolina belle, which she truly is. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

In late 1976, Community Newspapers Inc. of Spartanburg purchased my hometown newspapers, The Jesup Sentinel and the Wayne County Press. I was promised partnership participation, if I would be the publisher. Eddie was CNI's operations guru, and he inherited the task of training me for the merger, creating The Press-Sentinel.

Eddie left CNI in 1980 to buy out his partner in The Brunswick Beacon in Shallotte, N.C., near Holden Beach. Not long after, I bought CNI's interest in The Press-Sentinel. In 1989, three friends and I bought CNI, which I now co-own with a partner. But that long, convoluted saga is not the story.

The story is like they say in South Georgia: "If a box turtle finds itself on top of a fence post, it can be sure that it didn't get there by itself." I did not get to the top of my fence post without help from mentors, especially those like Eddie Sweatt.

"You must first be a good business, before you can be a good anything else," he said. "I'm not going to try to make you a bookkeeper, but I want you to know everything that happens in this department." Before personal computers and handy software, he taught me - with a pencil - to navigate through debits and credits. I spent many nights at the kitchen table with a pencil and a big eraser.

Before Eddie, I kept numbers on an envelope in my back pocket. When he was done, I understood every line of a profit-and-loss statement. And Eddie drilled, "A sale is not a sale until the check clears the bank."

Much has changed since Eddie rode his Buick into town. Eddie and Carolyn sold the Beacon 10 years ago. They are getting to do what Eddie jokingly refers to as the "Brunswick County Syndrome of breaking sorry." They read. They walk on the beach. They manage their investments and their health. But most of all, they keep their doors open to family and friends.

And for that, I am grateful.

In this season of thanksgiving, I count - among my many blessings - the guidance and friendship of Eddie Sweatt, who rescued me - just in the nick of time.

• Dink NeSmith is president of Community Newspapers Inc. and a member of University System of Georgia Board of Regents. Send email to dnesmith@cninewspapers.com.

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.